Barça transfer carousel impacts Red priorities

The futures of Cesc Fabregas, Alexis Sanchez and Samir Nasri will be clarified in the coming weeks, with much riding on the ever entertaining internal politics at Barcelona. The heavily indebted European champion claims to have a summer transfer budget of just €40 million, but with a deal for Sanchez still on the agenda and Fabregas increasingly likely to move, something is likely to give. More importantly for Manchester United supporters, Barça’s business will directly impact Sir Alex Ferguson’s planning this summer.

Deals for both Sanchez and Fabregas will have consequences for a selection of Barça’s squad players too, including 20-year-old Bojan Krkić, whom the Catalan giants are reportedly willing to sell for €10 million in a token effort to balance the books.

Barça’s attempt to use another youngster, Jeffrén Suárez, as bait in a Sanchez deal failed, with the player unwilling to join Udinese. The failed opening bid is unlikely to stop Pep Guardiola’s adding two outstanding midfielders to his side’s already plentiful options. The transfer maneuvering comes despite the Catalans picking up €21 million owed for Zlatan Ibrahimovich. The message is clear: Barça must sell to buy this summer.

Closer to home, the merry-go-round may yet have consequences for United, with Ferguson back from his annual French holiday to oversee the club’s search for central midfield creativity. With deals for Ashley Young, Phil Jones and David de Gea all inked, United retains more than a passing interest in Arsenal’s contract-rebel Nasri.

Thiago Alcântara, the Italian-born Spaniard of Brazilian parentage, was reportedly also on Ferguson’s radar as a fall-back option until the youngster signed a new deal at Camp Nou on Wednesday. In truth there seemed little in the reports. United’s interest in Nasri is seemingly more concrete, having hardened as potential for deals on Luka Modric and Wesley Sneijder closed.

Yet with Arsenal preparing to let Fabregas go according to every pundit this side of the Pyrenees the Londoners will feel compelled to offer Nasri a contract hike to more than £100,000 per week. It is figure within reach for United but exclusively Fabregas’ domain at the Emirates. Whether the Frenchman is willing to stay at the post-Fabregas club is as yet undetermined but the News of the World‘s, claim that the player’s predilection is now for a move north this summer will be noted at Old Trafford.

Only a bid will flush out the truth of course and Arsenal’s hand may be forced should United actually make a reported £20 million move this week. After all, Arsenal faces the very real prospect of losing 24-year-old Nasri for nothing in a year’s time when his contract ends.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is talking a tough game. The Frenchman can do little else with few options now left open regarding Fabregas except to negotiate the price.

“One thing’s for sure: we’re not selling him to Manchester United. We are trying to extend his deal,” claimed
Wenger last week. Whether majority shareholder Stan Kroenke agrees is another matter; losing a multi-million pound asset for nothing is surely unacceptable.

For United Nasri’s capture would provide the icing on a profitable transfer cake this summer. Driving a wedge between Wenger and his board merely the cherry on top.

Elsewhere Manchester City has admitted defeat in the club’s chase for Sanchez. While the Abu Dhabi-backed outfit upped the bidding to a reported £32 million – a figure that Chelsea is prepared to match – Sanchez’ representatives have made it known that a move to Camp Nou is the only option on the cards.

Barça’s opening £22 million offer plus Jeffren increased today, with the bid reported to now be £24 million guaranteed, rising to £36 million based on player performance targets. It is, said a spokesperson, a final non-negotiable offer.

“We are waiting for a response from Udinese,” a Barça spokesperson told Spanish news agency EFE today. “Barcelona made a definitive offer for the player and we will not change the parameters indicated.”

Meanwhile, Fabregas will join the Chilean winger in Catalonia having left the Arsenal board in no doubt about the player’s priority this summer. To that end Barça is reported to have made a renewed offer of £35 million on Wednesday, with the end game now in sight.

Of course, Barça’s transfer shenanigans is of passing interest to United, although the club sent a delegation to Udinese a fortnight ago. That chief executive David Gill came back empty-handed on a player Ferguson has tracked for more than three years is indicative of the club’s continued unwillingness to enter pan-European bidding wars.

There is, after all, a financial food chain in place, which in part at least explains Nasri’s new-found attractiveness at Old Trafford. The Frenchman is potentially obtainable where Modric is not without forcing Tottenham Hotspur’s hand with a premium bid. Similarly, Sneijder’s fee and wages package would mean a total commitment of more than £80 million for a player that turns 27 in the coming season.

It could yet go wrong for Ferguson. Should Arsenal play hardball on Nasri, United’s midfield options will appear narrower than ever.

Completely different type of player. Modric could come in and play in the same style in which Scholes did for us the last 5 years (deep lying midfield) but Nasri is different, he may require a change in style somewhat, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Nasri is very versatile too, played left initially for Arsenal, good to have players like him.

I think I mirror the views of most when I say Modric is a better option than both Nasri and Sneijder but Nasri would be a far more pleasing financial proposition.

Commenter said:
Is it just me or is Nasri just a cheaper, not quite as good, version of Modric?

Completely different types of player… but I think Modric would be better suited to our needs.

I still think there’s a twist in the Sanchez transfer… Udinese will feel very ripped off, if they’re forced to sell to Barca at that price, when they are being offered so much more elsewhere.

If it’s true that Sanchez refuses to join any other club, then Udinese are more or less fucked… but I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a twinge of loyalty, and resented Udinese being finger fucked this way by Barca… the Bitters have well and truly been “flipped the bird” by Sanchez, but he might not be so dismissive of the Renties, or even United… Udinese will be hoping for a better offer than the kick in the nuts they’re getting from Barca, and if they get one, they’ll try and talk Sanchez around.

If Fergie was ever really serious about Sanchez, he should get in there with £30mill… Sanchez might still say no, but Udinese might try to convince him otherwise… and in fact, a wise word in his ear, about where he’d be in the pecking order at Barca, compared to United, might make the difference.

modric contributes nothing to a team but looks great doing it, don’t score create come out with the ingenius scholes passes or generally run midfield, he’s like benayoun if benayoun played centre midfield, I want midfielders who can do stuff and don’t play for spurs softshites

Got a horrible feeling our buys for this summer are over. Can’t see modric heading north, nasri is just angling for more cash and there’s no way wenger will let him come to us, sneider dicking us around too much and too much cash, and I can’t see why we need Sanchez? To be fair I haven’t seen much of him play, but he’s not the player we need for CM as far as I can see, so where does he help us?
Got a funny feeling SAF will try and drop Rooney into the CM role at some stage soon, if there’s noone willing to come our way this summer that could happen sooner than I thought.

Someone explain to me what is happening at Barca. A lot of their fans seem to think that Thiago -the next Xavi- is already a better player than Fabregas. Why do they need them both? Sanchez would presumably replace Pedro? Bojan, available, I see as a watered down Messi & not the player we need.
Our targets for a top quality midfielder are narrowing.
I do not see Modric as a £30m+ player; Carrick, Berba & £15m would be a pretty desperate deal. Sneijner -too big, ego,age, cost & injury risk & would not fit in with Rooney. Nasri -if he really is interested- would be worth £25m. If he got his £110m+ per week, then Van Persie wiuld be on the phone & the rest of the crew could be in revolt. So it is not straightforward. Ignoring money, everything considered, Nasri looks the best midfielder -by a margin- on the market.

captainhormone said:
city are doing what chelsea do….go for our targets and that is their transfer strategy

I think they’re just in for all the top players, like we are. They’ve still got a lot of domestic shit in their team like Adam Johnson, Barry, Milner, Wright-Philips, Joe Hart etc. that will be replaced eventually

And I’m certain some of the speculation is lazy journalists filling columns

Bit harsh there, Sid. Hart is quality and Johnson is a good player who needs to wind his neck in a bit if he is going to improve. Arguably he is at the wrong club for that, though. I think there is a certain truth in what cap says. They don’t have the wherewithal to find their own targets, so are going for those of bigger teams aswell as players like Baines and, apparently, Clichy. Chelsea did exactly the same when Abramovich bought them. He knew fuck all about football, we were the best club in the country, so he set about poaching our targets with a little help from his bottomless pockets and that cunt Kenyon and his list. City are doing similar, but with more than just our reported targets. Hilariously, they are still considered shit, which is why Sanchez seems to have told them to fuck off

My mate is just back from vegas where he met sneider and van der vaart and got chatting football. He told him hes won everything in italy and keen for a change. When asked what about manchester? His reply.. ‘Very real possibility’.. Whether thats city or us who knows.. But he wants to move but do we want him?

Haha was expecting that. But he aint talking shit. He met jenas and chamach too and reckoned jenas was most genuine and asked them about how ‘their holiday was going’ and not all ‘me me me’. True story but believe what ye like like.

Haha was expecting that. But he aint talking shit. He met jenas and chamach too and reckoned jenas was most genuine and asked them about how ‘their holiday was going’ and not all ‘me me me’. True story but believe what ye like like. oh and he’s not a united fan if that gives this any more credance.

uncleknobheadforfucksake said:
modric contributes nothing to a team but looks great doing it, don’t score create come out with the ingenius scholes passes or generally run midfield, he’s like benayoun if benayoun played centre midfield, I want midfielders who can do stuff and don’t play for spurs softshites

Where do you get this stuff? Modric is one of the best players in the PL, he’s class. Benayoun? FFS…

Nasri is not a Modric-style player, at least not with Arsenal. Perhaps he could be moulded to play in a more central position. Fabregas’ leaving could mean either that Nasri will want to stay at Arsenal to be the new top dog, or else he’ll decide that the Arse is finished and will want to move to a competitive team. Either way, he seems more like an alternative to Sanchez than to Modric for me.

I agree with Alf that we might still be in with a chance with Sanchez, if we even want him. We’re probably able to pay more money than Barca are offering, yet he’d still probably be happy coming to us. He turned down City because they’re a nothing team; we might not be as good as Barca, but we’re almost hte next best hting.

Fuck Adam. Fuck him in his fucking ear. He doesn’t deserve to be anywhere near United. If we sign him it’ll be a coup for the dippers as they’ll be missing out on yet another laughable transfer. I’m all about Nasri. Bring that cunt on…

reddread said:
Fuck Adam. Fuck him in his fucking ear. He doesn’t deserve to be anywhere near United. If we sign him it’ll be a coup for the dippers as they’ll be missing out on yet another laughable transfer. I’m all about Nasri. Bring that cunt on…

Carrick, Fletcher, Gibson, Park… they don’t deserve to play for United either… but they do… and I’d swap any of them for Adam… in a heartbeat..

Mate, is he all four of those rolled into one? Or even any combination of two of them? Of course not. My issue isn’t with Adam per se, it’s with the fact that we are even linked with him with there are immeasurably better players to go for. I also think you are being a tad harsh on Fletcher and Park.

Take it easy Captain. Why don’t you give us some constructive opinions of players you would like to come in and players you feel we should get rid off. I do feel that SAF is desparately trying to solve his midfield problems, but I’m not yet convinced that the players he is targeting are going to make that much difference. Nasri? Sanchez gas all the tricks and skill to play attacking midfielder or left wing.
‘

captainhormone said:
ffs bman….nasri was the best player with nani in the prem up until fabregas returned from injury
why was that?
because he was playing central for Arsenal

No I agree with you on that, what I meant is that I think of Modric of playing a more central-central position, compared to Nasri who plays more advanced. In other words, Modric can be in the middle of a 4-4-2, but I can’t see Nasri doing that, I see him more as being in the middle of the 3 in a 4-2-3-1. But that might just be formation wankery on my part.

Adam is not any better than Carrick, Park, Fletcher, or Anderson. Not that he’s a bad player. But he’s had one goodish season in the prem. We need flair and invention in the middle of the park. Pastore/Nasri/Modric. Break the bank. Don’t settle for a 6th choice.

There must be a limit to what we wil spend on any player which takes into account sell-on value. Modric, Sneijder & now Nasri (& possibly Sanchez & Pastore) seem to be the well-known players we have an interest in. All -with the possible exception of Nasri)- do not seem to “offer value”. It seems pretty obvious that a creative MF with high-potential has not been identified anywhere in the world. Perhaps it would be better to concentrate on the can-do problem & buy either M’Vila or Javi Martinez & hope that Young & Anderson can offer creative possibilities?